Thursday, September 12th, 2019 Posted by Jim Thacker

Rookies 2019 rankings reveal the world’s best CG schools


International student awards scheme The Rookies has announced the Rookies World School Rankings 2019, its latest rankings for the world’s best CG schools, rating the performance of 500 schools in 89 countries.

The USA’s Gnomon topped the Visual Effects rankings for the third year running, although it fell to fourth in the Animation category, won this year by fellow US training institution School of Visual Arts.

Other categories were won by schools across the globe, including Canada, Denmark and Malaysia.

One of the world’s most comprehensive ranking schemes for CG schools
Since its foundation in 2009, The Rookies – formerly known as the CG Student Awards – has grown to become one of the world’s largest and most prestigious awards schemes for young CG artists.

This year’s awards attracted entries from 3,548 students worldwide, up 22% on last year.

Students’ portfolios were rated by a panel of 150 judges, primarily working VFX, games and concept artists.

Individual entries were scored on seven creative and technical criteria, with the heaviest weighting assigned to employment potential, and a median score calculated for each school with at least eight complete entries.

Further bonus points were awarded for each of a school’s students reaching the list of finalists for a category.

As with any subjective rankings, individual results are open to debate, and a school’s scores are obviously affected by the extent to which it encourages its students to enter for the awards.

However, the Rookies’ scoring system is transparent, consistent from year to year, and based on a large pool of data, making its rankings the best guide we’re aware of to the quality of schools worldwide.

Rookies World School Rankings 2019
Category School Location
3D Motion Graphics SCAD USA
Animation School of Visual Arts USA
Architectural Visualization 3D College Denmark
Concept Art and Illustration The One Academy Malaysia
Game Design Think Tank Training Centre Canada
Visual Effects Gnomon USA


Gnomon rated world’s best school for visual effects
In two of last year’s five categories, 2018’s leading school retained its top spot: Gnomon for visual effects and SCAD for motion graphics.

Each of the other three category winners – SVA for animation, Think Tank Training Centre for game design and The One Academy for concept art and illustration – also previously placed in the top 10 last year.

The architectural visualization category, new this year, was won by Denmark’s 3D College.

The Rookies also introduced two new categories based on ‘production excellence’ – the quality of group student projects – rather than the performance of individual students.

Each is further divided into subcategories, and none reaches a full complement of 10 schools, but you can see the results for game design and development and VFX and animation on The Rookies website.

Read full listings of the world’s best CG schools in 2019 on The Rookies website


Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon – School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation.